It’s been a flawless start to 2022 for reigning premiers Melbourne.
The Demons are the only unbeaten side left in the AFL, improving to 4-0 after comfortably beating Port Adelaide by 32 points at Adelaide Oval last Thursday night.
But despite their undefeated opening to the season, Melbourne still have huge scope for improvement in key areas, which is daunting for the rest of the competition.
“Be very afraid,” David King told SEN’s Whateley.
“Melbourne is going at about 70 per cent of last year and they’re already proving they’re 50 per cent better than the rest of the competition.
“They’re 4-0 and they’ve going half rat power.
“People will say that’s ridiculous, but if you don’t look at the winning or the losing and you just look at the numbers … we try to look at the trends of the game.
“Last year, they weren’t just the best team in the comp without the footy, they were the best by some margin, back to number two.
“They were the fourth best with the footy, they’re the two things that I mainly track, and we always know their contest stuff is unbelievable because of the talent that they’ve got and the brutality in which they play with (Clayton) Oliver, (Christian) Petracca, (Jake) Lever being able to win the ball back and those guys in the forward half, they just win contest.
“We talk about the rucks a lot, but all over the ground, they just win contest.
“I’ll give you last year’s rankings just to give you an idea … they were seventh with the footy, one, five and one for without the footy, clearance and post clearance. But the two ones were by a huge margin.
“This year right now they’re going, 12, four, 12, one.
“Their defensive stuff is still incredibly strong, but it’s not at the levels of last year. Their defensive 50 is still the best the comp and their ability to win the ball back is still the best in the comp through that mid zone between the arcs.
“Outside of that, they’re a very average football team by their standards and by the competition’s standards, so the scope for improvement at Melbourne is still greater than the scope for improvement at other clubs in this season, given the talent you’ve got and the system you’ve got.
“Right now, they’re going at 70 per cent and they’re clearly – clearly – better than any other team in the competition – so be very afraid.”
SEN host Gerard Whateley added: “Coming into the season, they felt to me like a 19-3 or 20-2 team. The question is can anyone lift their level to catch them?
“It’s a Preliminary Final question, they’re Richmond 2018 at the moment. They’re going to run the comp, and we’ll see you in the prelims.”
Melbourne will look to continue their unbeaten start when they take on GWS at the MCG on Saturday night.